One hundred years ago next month the Piqua (Ohio) Leader-Dispatch carried an ad for the Piqua Auto Supply House containing the phrase, "One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words." It's considered a source for the oft-heard expression, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

What Rolling Stone magazine has discovered with its Aug. 1 issue is: the picture that can substitute for 1,000 words can also destroy, in this case, over 11,000 words of really first-rate journalism about Dzhokhar ("Jahar") Tsarnaev and the April 15 Boston bombing.

The author, Janet Reitman, was educated at Skidmore College, University of California and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She's an accomplished, award-winning investigative feature writer with 20 years distinguished experience, including Rolling Stone magazine. Her most recent book is the New York Times' bestseller, "Inside Scientology" (2011).

Few have criticized her Rolling Stone story. It would be hard to do so. She's uncovered and provided as much detail and understanding as anyone could about Jahar, and what caused him to do what he did.

But Walgreens and CVS have taken the magazines out of their stores. Why? They don't like Tsarnaev's picture on the cover. It is, not incidentally, the very picture that appeared on the front page of the New York Times Sunday edition, May 5, 2013.

Of course, stores have the legal right to choose what magazines they sell. But it's hard to understand, let alone approve of, these corporations' censorship actions.

They are reminiscent of Nazi book-burning, or Taliban reactions to pictures of Muhammad, and reveal a profound ignorance of the informative role of journalism in a democracy.

Time magazine put Adolph Hitler on its cover, as Person of the Year, in 1938; Joseph Stalin was similarly honored twice (1939, 1942). Each was responsible for orders of magnitude more deaths than Jahar ever planned.

Moreover, Rolling Stone was scarcely honoring the bomber, let alone declaring him the Person of the Year (as Time may choose to do). The front page of the online version of the Aug. 1 Rolling Stone headlines the top story, "Jahar: The Making of a Monster." The inside sub-head reads, in part, "no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become." Neither reads like the wording of a publicist working for Jahar.

Rolling Stone's editors explain, "The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens."

The Boston Globe editorializes, "readers shouldn't assume that a cover story about a suspected evildoer represents an attempt to glamorize him. This issue of Rolling Stone should be judged not by its cover, but on the information that it brings to the public record."

Danielle Marcus, CVS' public relations manager, offered the explanation that "As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones." Walgreens' Tweet read simply, "Walgreens will not be selling this issue of Rolling Stone magazine."

Americans need that picture and story. Because Jahar is what bombers look like. Neither Middle East wars abroad nor NSA spying at home can save us. What perhaps could help is trying to understand American citizens like Jahar in Boston and McVeigh in Oklahoma City.

Nicholas Johnson was on the cover of the April 1, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. He is a former FCC commissioner and currently teaches law at the University of Iowa. Johnson's column originally appeared in the Iowa City Press Citizen.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors.